{"id":167354,"date":"2026-05-03T10:28:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T07:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/computingforgeeks.com\/gemini-cli-cheat-sheet\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T19:01:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T16:01:05","slug":"gemini-cli-cheat-sheet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/computingforgeeks.com\/gemini-cli-cheat-sheet\/","title":{"rendered":"Gemini CLI Cheat Sheet – Commands and Examples"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gemini CLI ships with five subcommand groups, more than 30 flags, an interactive REPL with 25+ slash commands, a custom-commands system based on TOML files, the Skills framework, MCP server management, sandboxing via Docker or Podman, checkpointing for safe rollbacks, multi-directory workspace support, GEMINI.md project memory, and the ability to migrate hooks from Claude Code. The official docs scatter that surface across a dozen pages. This cheat sheet collapses everything into one reference, with real outputs captured on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS using Gemini CLI 0.40.1 against a paid Google AI Studio API key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heads up:<\/strong> Google retires the hosted Gemini CLI on 18 June 2026 for free, Google AI Pro, and Google AI Ultra accounts, moving those tiers to the new Antigravity CLI<\/a>. Most of this cheat sheet was captured against a paid API key, and that path keeps working: the open-source gemini<\/code> binary and any paid Gemini or Vertex AI key are unaffected. Only the free Google-account quota goes away. If you sign in with a plain Google account, jump to Migrating to Antigravity CLI<\/a> below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you came from the Gemini CLI install guide<\/a> and want one page open while you code, this is it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This cheat sheet was refreshed in June 2026 to cover the Gemini CLI to Antigravity CLI move; the commands were verified in May 2026 with Gemini CLI 0.40.1 against gemini-2.5-flash-lite, gemini-2.5-pro, and gemini-3-flash-preview on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (Linux kernel 7.0).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quick install reminder<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
sudo npm install -g @google\/gemini-cli\ngemini --version<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
0.40.1<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
For the full prerequisites (Node 20+, browser auth, free-tier quota notes) and platform-specific install paths, the dedicated Gemini CLI install walkthrough<\/a> covers Linux, macOS, and Windows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Top-level command map<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Command<\/th>Purpose<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
gemini<\/code><\/td>Launch the interactive TUI agent (default).<\/td><\/tr>\n
gemini [query]<\/code><\/td>Open the TUI seeded with an initial prompt.<\/td><\/tr>\n
gemini -p \"...\"<\/code><\/td>Headless one-shot mode, prints to stdout.<\/td><\/tr>\n
gemini -i \"...\"<\/code><\/td>Run the prompt, then stay in the REPL.<\/td><\/tr>\n
cat file | gemini<\/code><\/td>Pipe stdin into a query.<\/td><\/tr>\n
gemini -r latest<\/code><\/td>Resume the most recent session.<\/td><\/tr>\n
gemini mcp<\/code><\/td>Manage MCP servers (add, remove, list, enable, disable).<\/td><\/tr>\n
gemini extensions<\/code><\/td>Install, list, link, validate, update, enable, disable extensions.<\/td><\/tr>\n
gemini skills<\/code><\/td>Manage agent skills (install, link, list, enable, disable, –all variants).<\/td><\/tr>\n
gemini hooks<\/code><\/td>Migrate hooks from Claude Code (currently the only subcommand).<\/td><\/tr>\n
gemini gemma<\/code><\/td>Local Gemma model routing (setup, start, stop, status, logs).<\/td><\/tr>\n<\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Authentication and config<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
On first launch the CLI looks for one of three auth methods. Pick the one that matches your account:<\/p>\n\n\n\n